Published 4:00 am, Thursday, January 18, 2001

2001-01-18 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- When George W. Bush raises his right hand this week to take the oath of office, GOP insider Dan Schnur says, Republicans will feel like the residents of Munchkin Land "right after Dorothy's house fell on the wicked witch."

As every day brings new Bush press conferences, photo-ops and policy pronouncements, rueful Democrats are wishing that they -- like Dorothy -- could just wake from the bad dream.

"As far as I'm concerned, George Bush didn't win," he said. "And I think a lot of people like me, for the next four years, are going to say the guy shouldn't be there, and it's just a matter of time."

But even in the wake of a protracted, bitter election, there's no room for self-pity.

"Instead of going back to lick our wounds, we're going to double down and work that much harder," Randlett said.

With just two days remaining until the former Texas governor takes office, Democratic activists and leaders are already carefully planning their comeback.

They insist they've learned some lessons that will serve them for the critical years ahead -- the congressional elections and California governor's race in 2002, and the presidential election in 2004.

"As we go dark, so to speak, on Saturday -- completely out of power for the first time in 50 years -- (it's important) that we have people in every board of education meeting, every state senate," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Walnut Creek , yesterday. "This is a new kind of country, a new century, a new electorate and we need a new Democratic Party."

On Saturday, "George W. Bush will take the oath of office . . . and I will be there," she said. "But he does not have a mandate."

Tauscher, now vice chair of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, is on the forefront of Democrats who want to shape a strategy appealing to the independents, swing voters and suburbanites who proved so important to the 2000 election outcome.

That means policies that support "a government that's smarter, and smaller, and leaner -- but not meaner," Tauscher said. "A government that is out of their way, but on their side."

Tauscher has been traveling the country these days to help energize Democratic efforts and foster "the California model" for regaining power, which she defines as a politics of "centrism, moderation and bipartisanship."

"California is an example of the change that's taken place in the Democratic Party of the last half dozens years," Tauscher said, noting that the nation's most populous state has elected Democrats in all statewide offices except the secretary of state; the party also dominates the state legislature and the governor's seat -- and Democrats won four new California seats in the U.S. Congress this year.

"We are not centrists who are mushy, middle compromisers," Tauscher said, but proponents of "reasonable, common-sense practical public policy that is based on common ground."

Al From, Democratic Leadership Council president, acknowledged what he said was substantial Democratic anger at the outcome of the election, and the lingering belief that Saturday's oath of office should really be taken by Al Gore. But he said new Democrats will fight back by bolstering their centrist policies and strengthening outreach with key constituencies, particularly in the capital of the new economy, Silicon Valley.

He said the DLC intends to release a set of proposals on key issues like education, taxes and trade and will focus on plans to maintain the level of prosperity, particularly by nurturing the new economy.

While many Democrats concede that strategizing -- and a bipartisan approach -- are necessary to the party's comeback, they also warn this is still politics -- and the hardball has only just begun.

"Democrats will give lip service to bipartisanship while they essentially look at (Bush) as an illegitimate president who can be taken out in four years, " said political consultant Garry South, adviser to Gov. Gray Davis.

Whetstone said that Bush himself has helped fire up the grassroots Democrats by some of his Cabinet choices -- the embattled nomination of the conservative former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft as his attorney general, and James Watt protege Gale Norton as his interior secretary.

"You're lulled into thinking (Bush) is a moderate, that he understands the great divide, then you see how easily he'll go right," Whetstone said. "So (Democrats) are angry and they want to be effective. The more they see things like Ashcroft the more they want to maintain the energy."